Friday, 2 February 2018

Following on from the Company B Priests recently finished (see my flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/troop-of-shewe/albums) , I decided to have a go at some Priest Kangaroos, this time using the Warlord M7. Whilst the kit is fine, maybe a bit too chunky for me and I hate the fixed tarpaulin, it was apparent a conversion was going to be fairly major surgery (ironically the company B M7 would have been easier).

Anyway, Warlord M7 as above, one major issue that I didn't foresee was the earlier model wheel sets with central earlier return rollers.....

First up was the major surgery, on inspection the best thing would be to remove the superstructure sides with the cast on ammo bins and reconstitute out of plastic card. Painful, brutal, and not for the fainthearted......

Regards the track sets, I shortened a set of M4 tracks to match the M3 chassis, worked fine in the end, and now reasonably accurate. The unbotched Priest is in the background for comparison.

With the sides I had to make suitable recesses to accommodate the plasticard side plates at a later point. The new sides will additional details on anyway so probably for the best. So several scalpel blades and a few cuts later, I had the basic hull cleared out, although that tarp casting was annoying me.....

View from above, looking drastic...

As I'm a glutton for punishment, I had decided on a pair, so the same process was repeated, and this time the offended tarp cast was removed.

So that's it for a bit, need to concentrate on getting some commissions out the door.

I'm pleased I went to the trouble of redoing the track sets and a total clear-out of the hull, it will produce a much better result in the end.

I plan to fully crew these with infantry as "sabots", similar to earlier M3 halftrack crews I did a while back. By using sabots the crew/passengers can be removed or added as required.

I'm gradually getting the hang of facebook, although not being able to separate hobbies and real life is confounding me, and I'm sure my children don't appreciate the toy tank updates...any pointers welcome.

Friday, 8 December 2017

Quick post while I have five minutes, have been juggling several very detailed commissions at the moment, hopefully trying to clear the decks for Christmas. The blog has been neglected recently, partly due to my iphone no longer supporting blogger but mainly real world pulls etc etc, however I will try and reinvigorate over Christmas as some really cool commissions finish.

So, today's focus is two Company B priests modified for Normandy, which will be resplendent with converted Warlord plastic crews, as always heavily fettled!

Above, basic paint work with initial weathering ( alongside part of a lovely New Zealand force for Italy ( more on them soon). I will detail all the Priest Normandy mods in another post, but trust me there's a lot of work up till this stage!

Here we have the two Priests with some basic weathering inside prior to crew positioning, crew will be pinned and fixed in place. Apologies for the picture quality, I have invested in a superb LED light-set, which I cant recommend enough, unfortunately it creates this strobing effect when i use the iphone!

Initial crew positioning, the crew are still on full length painting pins as they still need finishing off, but its enough to allow for composition ( or more correctly confirm positioning from the build stage)

So you get the idea, crew will now be removed and both crew and interior will now receive final detailing, prior to fully fixing in place tomorrow (hopefully), and then to finish off the exterior.

As always, best to subscribe via the email link to the side, more prevalent now as I am no longer able to post update links on TMP.

And for those who are interested...

Re: TMP - I seem to have fallen foul of the increasingly erratic and hubristic editorship, it would be nice to know what particular offence or digression I was found guilty of in absentia (I'm sure its more than me being on this side of the pond!)

Anyways, I'm clearly joining an increasing [secular] diaspora! Its a genuine shame as what was once a great and diverse resource is now unnecessarily, through the decreasing quality of content and discussion, increasingly incestuous spam and unaccountable, dictatorial editorship, driven into the self inflicted buffers!

Anyways, as "they" say: "his site, his rules", so I wish him all the best and sincerely hope he manages to resolve, or gets help for, whatever personal issues prevail.

Saturday, 2 September 2017

Been bitten by the Sherman curse again! I started with wanting to do a Sherman ARV following my S&S Cromwell ARV up on flicker...on doing research I though why not a wading Sherman for D-Day, so I thought, easy 2x S&S conversion sets and two M4A4 and we're off.......

It seems the majority of Commonwealth Shermans used on D-Day were M4A2 (Sherman III) which points towards a M4A2 being my preferred option for this build ( as opposed to an M4A4). The problem now was converting a spare Warlord M4 into an M4A2, which basically is a new engine deck and rear end, oh well here we go...

Starting positions, M4 Hull.

After bit of tinkering, removed the awful molded-on tow cable, the lifting points and rear engine deck parts. Also removed the additional armour plates which would add protection to the ammunition racks, clearly not needed on an ARV!

Refashioned a new rear end and filled in the existing hatch moldings. Tools will be removed later

Bit of a jump now; originally was going to use the S&S turret cover but decided it was cleaner to reconstruct, so:

note: the two figures are from the S&S 1/56 British tankers set, an excellent set in pixie suits, I will be modifying obviously ( no pixie suits in June!)

Close up of the hull front, not entirely sure what the rod assemblies were for, they look like station posts?, anyway made them up as per references.

Quick shot of the rear, you can see the re-scribed engine hatches, rear wood block stowages and added the extra fuel points. The actual grill just needs to be representative at this stage as I will add the wading stack and water proofing.

And finally, well for this weekend anyway ( Russkies to assemble and paint!), added two S&S Models crewmen for show!

This one is a "for fun" build, I feel a need for these to keep my skills in, and interest up and I love a challenge, probably not my best commercial decision, i.e time and resources for a vehicle used in one action!

As always with Shermans, something will always bite me, so if I've got anything incorrect just shout!

Thursday, 13 July 2017

Another interesting commission, this time a M24 Chaffee as fought at Dien Bien Phu. Not being too familiar with post war Chaffees, this one called for a bit of research. Specific mods I found difficult to trace, but noted the following from contemporary photos:

g) added some rear stowage, conjecture really, added the rear tray but in the stowed up position.
h) added brass/ wire handles, on all but the tie downs, i have to stop somewhere!

i) Tow cables made and added. I was aware that earlier German and Russian practice was to pre-rig tow cables prior to action to facilitate recovery, I think this adds that little bit of context and detail. practice

j) you can see the drivers hood in the stowed position, this will have clear glass when finished, also intend too add to the vision blocks as well.
l) The TC was a mix between a Warlord american tanker with a head swap from the spares bos, modified with tankers headset

Final shot with the TC, Captain Yves Hervouet commanding Escadron de Marche de 1er Regiment de Chasseurs a Cheval. As I understand his mount was "Smolensk", so if anyone knows of any specific details that I've omitted the please shout.

But be quick this is lined up for paint along side the earlier Russkies ( not related!!!)

And finally, am still shifting out old stock and un-committed projects, so the following are up on ebay, posted under "tarnished_epaulettes"